A Lost Cause
by Brandonstuart
Summary: Yes, he had a heart of ice, which was nearly impossible to penetrate, but… ice was also incredibly easy to shatter, and melted afterwards, leaving no trace it had ever been there at all. Perhaps it was better that way? GrimmjowxUlquiorra.
1. The Start of The End

Yes, I have not died. Ugh, please don't ask me where I've been, I've just had absolutely no inspiration to type at all. I think my stories are crap, and all kinds of shit like that. I'm going to TRY and pick where I left off on all my stories, if I can remember in which direction I was going with them.... Anyway, I hope you all like this story at least. Lol, I worked on it for a while before just deciding "Fuck this shit, I'm done with it," and so now I'm putting it up.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Bleach, does it look like someone as fucked up as me made it?

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Why were they doing this again Ulquiorra thought to himself. Oh yes, because Aizen-sama ordered them to. Yes, Aizen-sama had ordered them to go to the real world to get some things for the human girl that she'd requested. Of course Ulquiorra was more than 'happy' to go, but why did Aizen-sama have to send _him_ along with him…?

Beside him, Grimmjow Jaggerjaques was glaring at everything around him, in his ever-constant 'I-want-to-fight-anything-that-moves' way. Once he'd surveyed everything around him and decided nothing was worth punching – or maybe biting, you never knew with Grimmjow- he turned to Ulquiorra to start mouthing him.

"So, Aizen roped you into getting things for the human girl huh? What, did you finally actually do something to piss him off?" he asked, gleefully rubbing his hands together at the thought of Ulquiorra _not_ being completely subservient to Aizen.

"Hn," Ulquiorra grunted, not even paying attention to what he said, and carefully looked around for the store Aizen-sama had said they should go to. He just wanted to get this over with and go home quickly, being around Grimmjow for too long always left him…..feeling strange. He'd heard from the human girls about feeling like you had butterflies in your stomach when you're around someone, and he distantly thought that the feeling could be called a vague shadow of that.

Such a thing baffled Ulquiorra, for he was unused to feeling anything positive –although, how could feeling like butterflies were in your stomach feel good? - and it almost frightened him. For as long as he'd been a hollow, he'd had the instinctual ability to block off his emotions, although he'd only recently found out that it really only blocked his positive emotions- negative emotions he seemed to actually feel more sharply than any other person.

Apparently he'd gotten too lost in thought, because the next thing he knew Grimmjow was in his face yelling at him in a fury Ulquiorra had never seen before. Grimmjow actually had his collar in his fist and had lifted him a full four inches off the ground, and was shaking him back and forth. Ulquiorra mulled over the thought that if he kept this up he'd break his neck more than likely, before a rather sharp jerk snapped him back to reality again.

"Do you ever listen to me!?" Grimmjow was yelling at him, "or do you think I'm that far beneath you that nothing I say is worth your attention!?" He screamed, sharply jerking him again.

"That's only because anything you say isn't worth my attention, because all you say is useless junk," Ulquiorra calmly said, feeling a shadow of pride at the fact that he'd only spoke once Grimmjow stopped shaking him and was just glaring at him, also that his voice didn't waver or have any inflection of emotion at all.

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because the next thing he knew, Grimmjow had tossed him face-first across the street and into a window, shattering the glass into millions of tiny pieces almost instantly. He crashed into a wall next, and fell to the floor, biting back a groan as the tiny pieces of glass that had embedded into his front dug in deeper from the impact. He forced himself to open his eyes after several seconds, the store he was now in swimming in front of his eyes, and he closed them for a few seconds to get rid of the nausea that now consumed him.

He heard crunching from somewhere ahead of him, and he opened his eyes a bit, just enough that he didn't feel like throwing up, and saw Grimmjow standing just inside the store, glaring at him hatefully. He forced himself to open his eyes fully and stand up, fighting back a whimper of pain as his body protested the movement. Blankly he gazed at Grimmjow, determined not to show a single sign of discomfort. In a far corner of his mind, he bitterly thought that if he was anybody else, he'd be feeling shocked, or even outraged, maybe even a little puzzled, but he knew he couldn't.

Grimmjow scoffed and spat on the floor, snarling at him. "So, that's it? You're not even going to say anything, just stand there staring at me!?" He screamed the last bit out, kicking the wall angrily, looking satisfied as his foot went through it. "You know what Ulquiorra? You really are a fucking bastard. You have absolutely no emotions whatsoever; you're just a pathetic little servant to fucking Aizen. You have a fucking heart of ice- if you even have one!!- and there's no way anyone would ever like you, let alone care about you!" the last word came out more growl than an actual word, and for some reason Grimmjow seemed a little unsettled by his words, and he kicked the wall again as if he needed to show that he was still pissed and not unnerved, and turned on his heel as soon as the wall broke even further. "I fucking hate you, you fucker, and I swear one of these days I'm going to tear that heart of fucking ice out of you and break it into a thousand pieces!"

At the end of his furious, hateful rant Grimmjow stomped off without a single backward glance, seeming to forget all about the mission they'd been sent off on, and he was gone before he'd even gotten a block. Ulquiorra sighed and leaned against the wall, eyes staring blankly at nothing. He felt….like something had broken at Grimmjow's last words, and the pain that he had been able to block out at first suddenly overwhelmed him and he slid to the floor.

He felt miserable, and he cursed being able to acutely feel pain, even if he didn't understand why he felt it. Grimmjow didn't realize how right he'd been when he said he had a heart of ice, but Ulquiorra had known that for years. He couldn't help but wonder what Grimmjow had been talking about that had pissed him off so much when Ulquiorra hadn't paid attention to him. Ulquiorra pulled his knees up to his chest, hissing at the pain that shot through him at the action, and stared at the little pieces of glass on the floor.

He smiled bitterly, and put his forehead on his knees, feeling the overwhelming urge to cry come over him at the thought that something they could have had would never happen now. He felt the faint watering of his eyes, but nothing other than that happened, and he clenched his teeth. He couldn't feel fuzzy, happy-feeling emotions, he couldn't cry, he was cruel and manipulative, and he had a heart of ice. Just like all the other years he'd been a hollow, he felt bitterness bite at him again. Yes, he had a heart of ice, which was nearly impossible to penetrate. But…. He added as an afterthought, lifting his head to stare at the broken pieces of glass on the floor, ice was also incredibly easy to shatter, and melted afterwards, leaving no trace it had ever been there.

Grimmjow was surprised when at the Espada meeting that night, Aizen sharply reprimanded him for not completing his mission, and then sent him out to find Ulquiorra, who still hadn't returned. He went to the store he threw Ulquiorra into, and he stared in stunned shock at the shiny new window the store had, not a trace of the furious fight that had shattered it. After finally getting over his shock and getting back to Hueco Mundo, the meeting continued as Aizen just decided that Ulquiorra had gone off to complete his mission and would be back later. Grimmjow barely paid any attention to the meeting, feeling like Aizen was very, very wrong this time. When Nnoitra and Hallibel got into a fight and started kicking the shit out of each other for no reason at all, he didn't even notice, and when after the fight Szayel started whining that someone had stolen several of his research projects, he was long lost in thought.

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And that is the end of this lovely chapter of A Lost Cause, if anyone wants to review this shit, there is that lovely little button down at the bottom. Otherwise, just amuse yourself with keeping comments to yourself I suppose.


	2. A New Patient

Well then, here's chapter 2 now! Lol, I decided that since a lot of people were going to review even one chapter and all of them asking me to continue, that I would. Well then, I hope you all like this, and know that I've also decided to start typing on my other stories. Even I want to know how they'll end! I also am going to ask a favor of everyone, can anyone think of a really cool name? I need one before the chapter before next, but I can't think of one myself! Would anyone be so kind as to oblige me? Please send it soon!!

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With a loud, jaw-cracking yawn and a long stretch, Kurosaki Ichigo got out of his chair and began to pick up his stuff, shoving it into his backpack as soon as he picked it up. School had just gotten out, and he was ready to get home, where his father needed him for an emergency patient who had come in last night. His father had had him up all night taking care of the patient, who had apparently been hit by a car and had barely been hanging on to life, and he hadn't had any sleep, and barely made it to school on time.

Waving goodbye to his friends, and telling Rukia for the third time that day that she was not to follow him to the hospital, he left school and headed home. He took his time today though, because he really didn't want to help his dad with their newest patient. Although the patient hadn't woken up at all during the treatment, there was something about him that disturbed Ichigo, although he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

And so he tried for the hundredth time to determine what it was about his patient that he didn't like, and by the time he finally made it home he was well on his way to a headache and gave it up for a lost cause. He found his dad working diligently on changing the patient's IV, and greeted him casually.

"Hey pops, he wake up yet?" he asked, wondering why the first thing he'd ask would be that. Why not "How was your day?" or "Any other patients?" , anything but asking if _this_ particular patient had woken up.

Kurosaki Isshin shook his head in the negative, and plopped into a chair with a sigh. "Nope, not at all, not even a single twitch!!" he whined loudly, sad that his prediction of the patient waking up a few hours after coming in was proved wrong. "And there's nothing wrong with him either, he just doesn't seem like he wants to wake up."

"Well, I'm sure _I_ wouldn't want to wake up if I was hit by a car," Ichigo remarked casually, "even with all those pain meds it would still probably be hell."

Isshin laughed at that, and nodding enthusiastically. "Well, you're certainly right there, but we can't even be sure the guy _knew_ he was hit," he pondered that for a while, and then nodded as though he was right. "Yes, the person who brought him in said it blind-sided him and he was out before he hit the ground."

Ichigo winced, ignoring a small voice in his mind, that sounded peculiarly like his hollow, which pouted at that. He vaguely thought it added petulantly _'Damnit, this guy deserves the pain!' _and was proud that he managed to push it away just as quickly as it had come.

"Have you found out the guy's name yet?" he asked, sitting down into a chair next to his dad, and focused his full attention on him. When the patient came in he didn't have anything on him, not a wallet, not a credit card, not even an ID, so they didn't know his name at all.

Isshin sadly shook his head and looked at the patient, hoping that soon he'd get a name to go along with the face. He didn't like it when he had a patient whose name he didn't know, it made him feel like…like they weren't human or something. He turned back to Ichigo and grinned widely, hiding his anxiety.

"Well, guess we'll have to wait until the feds come to take their man away," he jokingly said, causing Ichigo to laugh. It was an inside joke of theirs that had been going on ever since Ichigo was a little kid that any person who came into the clinic that they didn't know the name of was someone the government was after. It had actually happened once too, which was why they always laughed about it.

"What are we going to tell them this time? 'I'm sorry officer, we'll be sure to tell you the second someone comes in without a name next time'?" he asked, grinning at the idea. You never really could joke with the police of Karakura; they never seemed to like it.

Isshin pretended to think that over, seeming to take his time in making up an answer. "No, I think it would be something more like 'But officer, I swear I didn't know he had coke on him! I thought the white stuff was flour!'"

Ichigo laughed so hard he fell out of his chair and rolled on the ground, coughing after several minutes had gone by, while Isshin laughed at both the joke and his actions. They were both startled when a soft cough brought their attention to the only bed in the room, and a pair of emerald eyes stared at them both, unamused and bored.

"Hello…why am I in a hospital?"

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You know the drill, if you want to then hit the little button and send me your comments. I'd be very appreciative, and they certainly make me write faster!


	3. Waking Up to Your New Life

Yesh, I have the third chapter up already!! Lol, I am on a roll this time, I suppose it's because I really love Bleach. I'm really, really going to try to get my butt into gear to write on my other stories too! Anyway, here's the story, bonus points and a cookie to anyone who can guess right! Although, lol, it's not that hard to tell who's who in this now is it?

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When he stepped off the curb to cross to the other side of the street, the last thing he expected was to get slammed into by a car. He was halfway through figuring out what had happened when pain burst throughout his body, and his entire world became nothing. Sometime later - his internal clock was so confused and messed up that he couldn't rely on it - he began to come out of the murky nothingness that was unconsciousness. Once he'd done everything but open his eyes, move, or make a noise, he was able to register the acrid smell of a hospital, and without opening his eyes he could already see the whiteness that would surround him. He also observed two voices cheerfully talking somewhere in the room, laughing uproariously suddenly.

People in his hospital room? Why? He was certain no one would visit him, or even care if he was in one.....right? And then the panic settled in as he realized that the only thing he could remember was stepping off that blasted curb into the way of that car. Everything else was a complete blank; he couldn't even remember his own name.

He let out a silent sigh and opened his eyes slowly, flicking them around the small hospital room and winced at the blinding white all around him. He could see that he was hooked up to several different medical machines, and he was amused to find that the steady beat of his heart soothed him so much. After he was done observing the room he focused his attention on the two other occupants in the room. One was sitting in a chair and laughing his head off, the white coat he wore gave him away as a doctor, but the other person, who he could hear but couldn't see, was laughing even harder and was apparently on the floor.

He decided to catch their attention, since their laughter was beginning to grate on his ears, and he softly coughed. Once the doctor stopped laughing and snapped his gaze to him, and the one who had been laughing on the floor scrambled up into view to stare at him too – he was a teenager with orange hair – he decided to ask his question. "Hello....why am I in a hospital?" he mentally chided himself for asking such a thing; he already knew he was hit by a car so why ask that? Perhaps what he'd really meant was why had someone cared enough to _send_ him to a hospital.

Once the doctor had gained his wits back he answered him in a polite, doctorish tone. "Well, it seems you were hit by a car. You're extremely lucky you didn't go into a coma, and you've been here a whole night in case you wanted to know," he added, looking at him curiously as though to ask if he did want to know that. The teenager plopped into a chair and watched him closely, looking a little puzzled. "Oh, would you be so kind as to tell us your name, you didn't have any identification on you and you aren't in any records."

He closed his eyes and sighed quietly, dreading answering this particular question. But then again, what was the worst the doctor could do, laugh at him? Surely he would understand, hundreds of people who were sent to hospitals got amnesia.

"I don't know..." he quietly told him, opening his eyes again to look at him. He wondered if the doctor would kick him out since he couldn't pay him if he didn't know his name to get any money from any banks or something.

The doctor looked appropriately sympathetic, and he came over to pat him on the head, startling him. It was the kind of gesture you gave a small child that needed reassuring instead of a full-grown adult. Oddly, he felt mildly comforted by the small gesture.

"That's okay, don't you worry about that. I'm sure you'll remember everything soon. Oh, my name's Kurosaki, Kurosaki Isshin. I'm very sorry for being so impolite as to not give my own name already. And the teen sitting over there is my son, Kurosaki Ichigo," he said, waving vaguely in the direction of the teen- Kurosaki.

He nodded silently and studied the two Kurosakis for several seconds before closing his eyes, silently signaling that he wanted to be left alone. Kurosaki must have been used to this, because he could hear the doctor quietly moving towards the door. Another pair of quiet footsteps joined him as the younger Kurosaki followed him out. In the quiet of the room, the heart monitor continued to beep quietly and the patient who couldn't remember anything about himself let out a tiny, sad smile at the sound.

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Is it boring reading at the end of every chapter to please review? Anyway, I suppose if we authors didn't say that, you wouldn't feel inclined to. Anyway, do what you want, although I really am a review hog...


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